High Priest (Holy Name)
The Theists of the Ordo Priests and the Established Order of Priests have a less than congenial history. Most Theists, even those who are far away from the Agnostic/Deism part of the Tribal spectrum, view the Priestly Order as an organization of Priestcraft. For more info on what is Priestcraft, see the Video below. Ordo Priests: The Order of Priests tend to the Church herself, shepherds of the flock who ensure that God's chosen people do not fall prey to the vices of the world, nor to the wolves who lurk just outside the Shepard's gate. The Priest's powers revolve around the faith itself: they have the power to re-cause the famous miracles of scripture or to summon the ancient heroes of the faith for momentary assistance. They can also draw power from the faith of others, fueling their own efforts with the beliefs of those who follow them. Priest Degrees The Jesuits Opus Dei Liturgy of Hours The Old Ways Facts: -Priests know God as the Founder of the Tribe, their essence is derived from a particular Tribe, it's history, tradition and theology. -The Order of Priests is most closely associated with the Title of Chaplain. If someone in the Squad is a Priest, chances are they will be elected Chaplain sooner or later. -Priests are said to use incense made from exotic ingredients, with recipes only they know, which cause other Adepts to often times enter a trance and catch visions of the far future or past. -Priests have a tendency to keep stores of Holy Relics among themselves. Priest Chantries are often full of religious artifacts. -Historically, the Order of Priests has been one of the largest, certainly one of the most influential of the Ruling Orders. However, for the past few centuries their power has slowly waned. -A Priest is born from a Tribe, it is in his nature to preserve that faith community. The benefit of such a mentality is that Priests tend to be disciplined or at least more orderly than most people (and more connected as well). The down side is that to preserve usually translates as rejecting anything new or innovative, since change is the ideological opposite of preservation. -When Rome collapsed and the Dark Ages began, it was the Order of Priests who really stepped up to the plate. The Western Church, centered in Rome, was the only viable system left in place for society and that is why the medieval period is marked by such a dependence on the church system, it was one of the few remaining forces or order left in a world flooded with chaos. -Within a Squad, Priests Adepts tend to be the glue that holds everyone together, playing both advocate and confidant to many. -The Order of Priests is the premiere member of the Ecclesiastical Orders and the others often look to them for decisions on important topics. -Shepard Kings are strong supporters of the concept of the priesthood of all believers. -Because of their origins, Priest Adepts gain Church Lore more quickly and more easily than other Adepts. Veneration of Saints: Priests are a Petitioner Order and can call out to the souls of former men and women of faith. Dubbed Saints by mainstream Monotheism, the Priests can gain new powers and favors by associating with particular Saints. Veneration of Saints is looked down upon by other Adepts, even other Christian Adepts. Many see it as a form of idolatry. However the Priests respond that they do not worship but simply venerate the Saints the way someone could show respect to a living soul for their accomplishments in life. Saints are not made equal to God, only seen as brothers and sisters in the faith who have crossed over to the other side. *Gaining new powers will require repeated acts of devotion, prayer and meditation on the life and works of a particular Saint. *For Nazoreans, these Saints will be former Nazoreans or Pre-Incarnation Enochians. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Excommunication: The real thing, the Excommunication done by the Order of Priests, is far more devastating than anything the Initiate Churches are capable of on their own. The Priests use their influence over belief to make people forget about the target entirely, to such a point that the person begins to cease to exist! Photos of the target will be erased or he will be subtracted from them, computer databases will fail to remember information on him, even his driver's license will go blank. Friends and family will struggle to remember what he even looks like, the memory of him exiting their minds the second the target leaves the room! Eventually... they will just fade away to somewhere else, and only the Order of Priests will have known they ever existed in the first place. Excommunication is considered the gravest of powers and is only conducted by the highest ranking members of the Order. Even then it is only ever performed in the most dire of circumstances. Note: Excommunication does not work effectively on members of the Natural Orders. Because their Orders are Natural, both their communal and individual natures are based on truth and reason, and not on the kind of faith which fuels the power of Excommunication, they have little to fear from it (for their sake, they had better be right). References: -https://www.pinterest.com/benjaminstyles7/order-of-priests/ -http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Supernatural_Priest_Training -https://bible.org/seriespage/priests -http://www.openbible.info/topics/priest -http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12406a.htm -http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/mbv.html Priestcraft: "You Pharisees and teachers of the Law of Moses are in for trouble! You’re nothing but show-offs. You lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. You won’t go in yourselves, and you keep others from going in." -Jesus Christ. The Ordo Priests conserves itself gravely with the issue of Priestcraft. It's not a stretch to say that Theist Priests spend much of their time in struggle with the Order of Priests over the health and life of the Church. The Ordo Priests seek a genuine Church, not an official and organized group but instead a collection of people who have a real and spiritual relationship with God. Category:God